#Anne Rice Fandom History

[darkangel1791]

Because many of you answered in the poll that I should keep the disclaimer with the fic for the sake of historical preservation, I thought you might like to see this. It's about when Anne Rice Fanfic was taken off off the net.

In 2000, when the cease and desist letters were sent out by Anne Rice's lawyers, we were ordered to remove all fanfiction based on her characters from the internet immediately or we would be sued. A lot of pretty terrible things had already happened to some fanfic authors, so we all took them down. Where our sites used to be, many of us put this image.

It linked to a site which said this-

***********************

WHERE CAN I READ FANFICTION BASED ON ANNE RICE'S BOOKS?

Nowhere. You can't. On April 7, 2000 Anne Rice had the following message to say on her webpage:

"I do not allow fan fiction.

The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters.

It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes."

This statement was then followed up by attacks on Anne Rice fanfic authors. The attacks consisted of, amongst other things, e-mailed threats regarding not only the writing of fanfiction but any writing that any fanfic author attempted to engage in (regardless of who owned the copyright), attacks on businesses that the fanfic authors owned and weeks of harassing personal letters sent to fanfic author's e-mail addresses and guestbooks. Personal information about fanfic authors was also dug up by Anne Rice employees and used as part of the harassment. Suffice it to say, Anne Rice made her displeasure clear.

SO WHAT HAPPENED?

Unable to defend themselves against these attacks, the fanfic authors responded by going into hiding.

BUT DOESN'T ANNE RICE HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO TELL THEM TO STOP? WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST STOP WRITING AND LEAVE IT AT THAT?

Yes she does. However this was not an issue of Anne Rice asking the fanfic writers to stop. If that had been the case there would have been no problem. The problem was that she was not asking or even telling, she was using the excuse of fanfic to cyber-stalk and harass the fanfic authors, even after said authors removed the illegal fanfic from their sites. Not having the money or legal resources to defend themselves against this, hiding was the only option left.

COULDN'T THE FANFIC AUTHORS JUST TRY BEING NICE TO ANNE? MAYBE SHE WOULD HAVE AGREED IF THEY HAD ASKED POLITELY.

The fanfic authors were nice to Anne. When Anne Rice fanfiction started Anne's publisher was aware of it (even going so far as to link Anne's offical Random House website to many of the fanfic-oriented sites) and quietly let it be known that there was a "don't ask, don't tell" policy in effect regarding it - as long as the fanfic authors didn't shove the fanfic in Anne's face, The Powers That Be could pretend that it didn't exist. In addition to this the early fanfic authors spent months researching the legalities surrounding fanfic and asking questions of other fandoms to see how they respected copyright law in their fanfic writing. This knowledge was then used to create a disclaimer system to make sure it was understood that at no time did the fanfic authors intend to infringe upon Anne's legal rights.

This system of mutual respect lasted for approximately five years. After five years Anne Rice abruptly changed her mind and let the fanfic authors know it by way of her lawyers. Fanfiction is now considered unacceptable by Anne.

WHAT ABOUT DISCLAIMERS? DON'T THOSE WORK IN OTHER FANDOMS?

For years a disclaimer was used in front of all Anne Rice fanfics which mirrored the disclaimers successfully used by other fandoms, namely one which pointed out that the fanfic in question was a "non-profit, amateur effort not intended to infringe on the rights of Anne Rice or any other copyright holder." While this disclaimer has worked well in other fandoms, Anne Rice considers it unacceptable. According to Christine Cuddy, Anne's lawyer "Even when done on a non-profit and/or amateur basis, such use of [Anne's] characters without Ms. Rice's permission constitutes copyright infringement."

DID SOMEBODY TRY MAKING MONEY USING ANNE RICE FANFICTION? WAS THAT WHAT CAUSED THE PROBLEM?

No. At no time did any fanfic author make money using Anne Rice fanfiction in any way, non-profit or otherwise. The only times that money changed hands were when fanfic authors and fans bought Anne's own books.

WHAT IF I WANT TO WRITE ANNE RICE FANFICTION?

Are you sure? Know what you're getting into. The threat of personal harassment is very real. Anne Rice does not want you writing fanfiction and she has the money to make you stop. Do you really want to try this?

WHAT IF I HAVE ALREADY WRITTEN A STORY AND WANT TO SHARE IT WITH OTHERS?

Don't. Not if you truly want to obey Anne's wishes. That's really all that needs to be said there. However, if you absolutely have to write a fanfic story and have to show it to somebody else via the Internet (which is, again, a violation of Anne's wishes) then doing the following may be of help. Bear in mind that this is not being offered to you as a guarantee or as any kind of legal advice. You could do all of this and still get sued. These are simply suggestions which may help you avoid being harassed:

Do not put the story up on a webpage. Share the story with others in e-mail, such as on a private mailing list.

Do not attach your real name to the story. Use a pen name instead.

Do not use the e-mail address provided by your ISP when sending out the story. Instead create an anonymous account for yourself with Hotmail, Yahoo or any other web-based provider and do not include your actual name and address when filling out the forms for that account.

If you have to put the story up on a web page do not use the webpage that came with your ISP account. Get a webpage from a free server such as Geocities, NBCI or Angelfire.

If you have put the story on a webpage do not link to the story from elsewhere on your website.

If you have put the story on a webpage do not submit that webpage to any search engines, webrings, link exchanges or other public forum.

Do not attach any personal information to the story, your email or your website in any way. This includes your real name, the name of your ISP, your home address, where you go to school/work or anything else that could be used to trace the story back to you. Likewise do not include any information about whether or not you are or were in the ARVLFC, as it is possible for them to trace your personal information through there as well.

Obviously at no time should you show or send the story to Anne herself or anyone who works for her.

Again doing all of the above is a violation of Anne's wishes. If you are writing fanfiction based on Anne Rice's books then you are disobeying her orders. Period.

I'M NOT A FANFIC AUTHOR BUT I DO ENJOY READING IT. IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO?

Given the sheer volume of Anne Rice fanfiction that has been written (and, as the above question shows, that people are perhaps continuing to write) it is obviously false to say that all Anne Rice based fanfic has disappeared off of the world wide web. Undoubtedly some of it still exists out there in some form or another. If you manage to find some there's nobody out there who can stop you from reading it and enjoying it. However at no time should you take what stories you find and put them up on your own webpage or even link to the webpages that you find without that author's permission. Making Anne Rice fanfiction available from your website via copying or linking to the story will get you into trouble - not just from Anne but from the author as well. Don't do it.

HOW DO I FIND THE STORIES THAT ARE STILL OUT THERE?

We don't know. And we certainly couldn't tell you if we did.

QUOTES OF NOTE

"I suppose the character is public ground. If you're willing to bring it into people's houses every week, the [fans] are entitled to certain liberties, where ever their imagination is carried by those characters."

--Paul Gross, aka Ben Fraser and Executive Producer of Due South, quoted in the Toronto Globe & Mail, Augst 8, 1998

"I am flattered and grateful for this outpouring of support, admiration and recognition. I am moved to tears actually at how my performance has moved so many others. The websites are magnificent. All the photos, artwork, chats, fiction and videos are really great. I honestly never thought I would create such a stir but I feel absolutely blessed that I have."

--Scott Cohen, aka "Wolf" from The 10th Kingdom in a letter to http://www.wolfpackclub.8m.com/letter.html. Spring 2000.

"I've read some of it... I find it very flattering that people love the characters that much."

- J.K. Rowling on Harry Potter fanfiction that can be found via the Internet. Fall 2000

*****************

I believe this was posted on October 4th, 2000, which is Louis' birthday, and also Anne's.

I believe I know who wrote it, but I am not positive, and even 23 years later, I am not going to expose them to any possible danger. It may be improbable, but never impossible.

So this is our history. This is what happened. And do please remember that J.K. Rowling was thought to be a perfectly decent person in the year 2000.

This isn't meant to spread any animosity now. It is just a look at history. I don't see how it belongs in AO3, but I want to put it somewhere before the Wayback Machine drops it.

ARVLFC = Anne Rice Vampire Lestat Fan Club

In 2012, Anne Rice kind of said fanfic of her characters was okay, but in 2014 she took it back.

With her death, I should think that only Christopher Rice would have the legal right, and possibly the money, to pursue this again, but so far he seems uninterested.

You may also want to read this article.

A Deep Dive into the Anne Rice Fanfiction Debacle by August T.

[theficlistpodcast]

It wasn’t only her, to be fair, but the attempts made by published authors to quash fic of their works is also why AO3 strictly prohibits commercialization of fanfic - it protects against copyright claims.

[roosterbox]

Now that the new Vampire Chronicles tv thing is coming out (I’ve seen some of y’all posting gifs and screen grabs, looks interesting? And gay??), I’m wondering if, now that she’s dead and all, there will be a sharp uptick of fanworks for the property?

Like, VC is the kind of series that should have been HUGE as far as fanfic goes. I mean, dozens of devastatingly beautiful men who are obviously super into each other??? The fics would have written themselves!

But then, y’know, Anne Rice happened. And that was that.

[geekygirlexperience]

“After Archive of our Own raised fundraised last year there was a viral tweet that went out asking why fan fiction writers can't make money from their work. That made us millennial geeks realized that not everyone remembers or knows the story of Anne Rice and crusade against fan fiction of her work. This was a story that was passed down through Angelfire to Livejournal to Tumblr.”

A video my friend did highlighting why a site like Ao3 is super important.

[johannestevans]

have you checked out iwtv yet? any thoughts if you had?

I have, I watched Season 1 a while ago, and we watched S2 while it was airing. I'm not exaggerating or being hyperbolic at all when I say I think it's one of the most phenomenal, well-written, and well-acted pieces of television of the 21st century, and it blows a lot of other attempts at televised complex drama out of the water.

I don't care for Anne Rice and never have - even were it not for the fact that the woman herself was incredibly abusive, overly litigious, and devastated fandom spaces for decades out of her own over-inflated ego, I found her prose... difficult.

There's a reason the likes of My Immortal draws so heavily on Rice's style, and her prose aside, a lot of her work was just super racist and incredibly held up by her own bigotries.

The ways in which Interview With A Vampire reimagines its cast of characters by flipping a lot of those racist power dynamics and ideas, granting agency and complexity to Louis through his Blackness rather than centering slavery and slave-owning as a romanticised ideal of power and command is really fucking good, not to mention the ways in which the show really delves into the trauma and cruelties laid on its Black protagonists by white and other non-Black characters throughout.

I think the choice to age Claudia up a bit but not enough to diminish her pain - if anything, only to add to it - was really great, especially given that Claudia comes with so many gender and sexuality feelings wrapped up inside her, caught between her two parents who hurt and traumatise and ultimately allow for her lynching in the worst of fucking ways.

The awareness with which Armand and Lestat's histories are grappled with, the ways in which their sexual traumas impact their relationships and their relationships to power struggle and control within those relationships, Armand's whole fucked-up view of the world, and then bringing Daniel back in as an older, far more bitter, far more aware man, able to tease apart the trauma, the lies, the self-delusion, between all these traumatised vampiric homos and their various intersecting personality disorders?

Sublime!

It's funny, it's sexy, it's fucked up, it's fucking horrific, it's really got everything, and I'm super excited for S3.

[lovethelittlerthings]

i am so fucking proud of how big the iwtv fandom now is... i just opened tiktok for the first time in 6 months cuz i dont have a phone and was bombarded by great iwtv fan content, we now have multiple analysis with diverse content creators, cosplays, memes, shitposting, the loumand fight scene rehashed endlessly! i remember discovering iwtv on a random post on reddit when i was researching about the history of vampires and it only had 2 episodes by then. I searched up iwtv on tiktok and i could literally scroll down to the end of the posts one month later after finishing the whole series. i was aware that it had very good critic response and already has a cult following because of anne rice (duh) but the energy was not coming from gen z which is weird for me since i was constantly surrounded by genz-esque content which is what present day tiktok iwtv fandom is like. i watched all the reactions of it which was roughly 6 youtubers and majority came from finishing the movie version (i personally hadnt watched it even now) but now i see 100k likes on a tiktok???? like the iwtv deserves all the attention they get, i dont care if yall want to be gatekeepers but attention is good when it comes to this. i got emotional scrolling through the endless content about toxic gay vampires on tiktok and i just hope we keep this momentum up. i love this cast and this story they are telling, never die!

[darkangel1791]

It just occurred to me that it might be interesting for some of you to read The Anne Rice FAQ

The Brat Queen created it and wrote most of it. She asked me to take over maintenance of it in early 2000. I agreed and added a bit to it. Then The SpecWriters Massacre happened and I told TBQ that I wouldn't be reading anymore AR, and would she like me to find someone else to maintain it. TBQ's answer was that I probably wouldn't be able to find anyone at that point who would do anything but write exactly what they were told to write, or face prosecution, so she would rather just let it lie as it was. So this is her work, her baby, she wrote it and maintained it for SEVEN years. I had it for a few months. Still what is in it probably isn't anywhere else.

[theficlistpodcast]

It's fun when people think I'm a ~youth~ but like...I lived through the strikethrough/purges, DashCon, and Anne Rice, lol

[nalyra-dreaming]

I can't stop thinking about how IWTV spent a LONG TIME in pre-production hell until it only actually got made VERY SUDDENLY once Anne Rice died. I think there's a correlation.

Those of us who have been around long enough to remember what Anne Rice was like about Lestat know she was hyperfocussed on him much more than any of the other characters.

I think this affected production. I think she might have been indecisive and controlling, and possibly unable to fully commit to letting a team play with her vision. I think that would have really ground casting and other creative processes to a standstill. I don't know, I just know how it felt.

I remember READING ABOUT a Vampire Chronicles series for about ten years or so and thinking it would never happen because she'd never let anyone have Lestat as fully as is necessary for a series unless she was show runner herself, but that wasn't going to happen because she was a writer, not a show runner, she was old, and she couldn't decide on how to best do her characters justice, and didn't trust anyone else.

- (maybe understandable, given as she originally wouldn't watch the IWTV movie, and QotD was objectively an awful adaptation) -

I stopped caring because I didn't think it would ever happen, and if it did I expected it would be the Lestat Show and nobody else would be more than supporting cast.

Aaaaaaaand then pretty much as soon as she was dead it seems like they SUDDENLY got greenlit for everything, like yes start rolling, Sam come out of hiding, period change is approved, 1900s NOLA go go go!!!

I'm asking because I genuinely don't know what Anne Rice ever knew of the actual series, and I feel like the long pre-production period was kind of tied to her not being entirely down with it?

Hey!

Soooo... Anne knew. Christopher knew / knows, too.

Both likely signed an NDA I would assume.

This show has a history, as you point out, and I talked about it (ages ago) here (with links):

(Do read @cbrownjc's excellent addition that is linked in there, too!)

And this history likely resulted in an NDA when AMC bought all rights... and did not use Christopher's script. Imho.

So Anne knew I bet, and if she hadn't been so (fatally) ill then, she would have come to adore the show I think. Because, as you know, she also hated the movie, and the casting, and and and... and ultimately, she loved Tom Cruise's Lestat. And so on.

I mean, it was a very personal thing for her - as we all know she modeled them on herself and Stan and Michele... and throughout the years and the decisions wrt fandom and fanfiction and so on that always came through.

Anne knew, unfortunately she died just when they started filming.

But, you know... I bet, if she were here, she would see it as a handover of Lestat to Sam. Because everybody keeps saying he is possessed, and I can only agree :))))

[ca-suffit]

genuinely cannot understand how someone can have such shit takes!! you take every criticism of a black character and call whoever said it racist. every character in this show is horrible. that’s kinda the point?? it’s a gothic horror. all the characters are fucked up (that includes louis)

I know ur being a jackass on purpose but I'm gonna answer anyway cuz maybe someone might learn something.

get over "racist" being a bad word. It's not. even if I didn't use that word, u still wouldn't be listening so I don't rly care about this split hairs bullshit. but focusing on that part instead of the full message of *how* ur being racist is avoiding doing anything useful and choosing to stay ignorant. That's on u.

I've never said the characters aren't horrible. reducing it all down to "everyone's a monster" and "it's gothic horror" is overly simplifying a lot of shit to avoid analyzing anything. we've long established in this fandom that most ppl who say they "love" gothic horror have no idea of the history of racism in it and how much can be explored there. cuz u don't want to. cuz u use this all as a way to avoid any real analysis. all u care about is buzzwords to sound smart while saying nothing at all. All hail Anne Rice, once again, the one who taught u all to act like this.

I'm here *bcuz* all the characters are fucked up. I can talk about it in a lot of detailed ways. Idk why u all can't and why ur one point of pressure all the time is only Louis. I mean, I do know, but u get upset when I use the R word so.

[commander-krios]

If you're desperate for cash, open a kofi mentioned only on your tumblr so people can tip you for being a bnf or whatever it is you think you are. Don't start breaking the one piece of fandom etiquette that protects fanwriters from IP holders (who actually could come after fan artists too, if they so desired, they just historically have gone for writers worse). Ann Rice might be long gone but the precedence is still there and there's a REASON AO3 will ban you in a heartbeat for even mentioning commissions and it's not a double standard that's unfairly mean to fanwriters. Or you can fuck around and find out, maybe it's been too long since someone's gotten banned and fandom at large needs a reminder. Signed, a fandom old who's tired of people who don't know our history risking fucking everything up.

Wow, ok. I literally mention it once and y’all fucking lose your minds. I think I’m done with fandom. Fuck y’all.

[opinated-user]

Oh for god's sake, Lily' decided that what the world really needed was her wading into Ao3 discourse. If Lily was really interested in why Ao3 has fundraisers, she could look at the budget that is made publicly available. But no! We have to just assume the OTW is asking for all this money for embezzlement or lawsuits for when they're inevitably sued for being evil.

It's so stupid and then she turns around and says that Ao3 is a barely functioning website and that FF.net is superior. FF.net... the site infamous for randomly taking down fics, having extremely contradictory rules for what they'll host (including banning such innocuous things as song fics and character submission fics), putting adds in the middle of fanfics and being barely able to load on mobile anymore, that's the superior fanfiction site we should all be using instead because it, *checks notes*, is funded by selling users data to advertisers rather than by voluntary donations.

(All of this, of course, without mentioning the obvious hypocrisy of Lily using Ao3 for her fanfics because she knows more people use the site, so she'll get more views than if it was put on FF.net)

some while back i mentioned that LO is fully ignorant of fandom history when she talked about how everyone demonizes anne rice unfairly because she "didn't want smut of her character" and stuff like this proves it even further. do you all know why A03 needs the money? in case authors decide to sue them for their fanfics because, in case LO didn't realize this, fanfictions are technically illegal, just like fanart and literally any other fanwork using a IP they don't have the rights to. all those people who sell fan made merch? all the people who accept donations or money for writing commisions about that ship you like? they all walk a very thin line of legality where people have gotten in trouble for in the past. anne rice actually threatened legal actions against people for publishing any kind of fanfic, not just smut. the reason why ffnet also deleted works was exactly because they took that seriously and thus, if your work ever happens to displease an author for whatever reason, they will take you out because that's easier than dealing with someone with actual power to sue them. A03 was made out of this environment as a way to protect authors, so nobody ever have to be scared of their work being taken down like that. you can have all the issues of the world with the content, the moderation, the fandom itself, but if you want to have a problem with it, at least understand what is actually meant to be for and why it is like that. otherwise you simply do not have a leg to stand on. not to mention, as you very well point out, a website that is completely free to use and remains ads free while being used by thousands of users every day is going to be inherently expensive. just having a normal website as a portafolio if you are an artist already cost a good bunch. LO has no idea what she's talking about. more news at 11.

[thisweekinfandomhistory]

It's a big one this week! Emotions abound as Emily and V take a dark look into the mind of former vampire queen Anne Rice and her irrational, misinformed hatred of fanfiction…. and its very real-world consequences for thousands of her fans. This is why disclaimers exist, people. This is why fanfiction will always walk in the darkness and crumble in direct sunlight (just like a vampire). And this is a dangerous precedent set that affects us all to this day. What was Anne Rice thinking? Seriously, WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?

This Week In Fandom History is a fandom-centric podcast that tells you… what happened this week in fandom history!

This really is a big one, friends. Please share this episode -- here, on IG, on TikTok, whatever -- because this is so important and people newer to fandom need to understand this part of our shared history. This is such a seminal event.

[olderthannetfic]

I'm genuinely in awe of how many people in the notes were actually unaware of the legal aspect of of patreon links on AO3.

Like, I thought we could jump right over the "AO3 was founded so Anne Rice can't sue us" part and go straight to "it's rude to take advantage of fellow fans' donations and volunteer labor" because everyone already knew the former. I thought that was fandom basics that someone would become aware of around the same time they discovered AO3.

I guess all those Fandom 101 posts didn't reach as far as I thought they did.

--

People find fic archives via direct links to some fic, click around a bit until they find what they like to read, and then read.

They don't look at site histories or 101 posts until they break the rules and it bites them in the ass.

Also, hustle culture has massively brainwashed a generation, and the idea of that not being welcome in a space is just unfathomable to many.

[meerawrites]

Introduction to writeblr

Hello I am Meera S (they/them), I am a speculative fiction writer, writer of historical fiction and more, all of it is queer centric and with person of global majority (colour) angle. Please interact with this post and I shall add you back to the best of my ability!

about my writing

I’ve been writing and fan fictioning since I was 10. I started my first novel a little over a year ago, I am editing it in a month. I gravitate towards the gothic and historical but I am not gonna limit myself to that. I also write short stories, fic and poetry. 

1. Vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts, and more, oh my!: I love me some monsters and allegories that are multilayered, just not zombies. 

2. Fantasy and gothic, I write about the human through the inhuman, Anne Rice once said vampire was the most poignant allegory for outcast and other-ness. 

3. The historical. You have to know the past to understand the present and future. Ancient History through 1920s and all of South Asian history and mythology. 

4. Diversity: I am a queer south asian person but I do earnestly try for informed diverse world views that are nuanced and sympathetic even if not “moral” because vampire, etc. 

about me

read here. 

fandoms: read here. go here for fandom stuff. Here for history. Here for fic. Role-play masterlist. 

Influences: Anne Rice, Oscar Wilde, Octavia Butler, Indu Sundaresan, @writingvampires, @elisaintime, Silvia Moreno Garcia and @saintmachina.

what i'm looking for

1. Friends and cool people.

2. eventual beta readers/editors.

3. Other writers.

4. people who know people etc. 

genres i read

I gravitate towards the gothic and historical, but anything well written and I think worthwhile. 

Just finished: Good Omens, Lasher by Anne Rice, catching up with Dracula daily . also following @re-dracula.

Immediately going to read: Taltos by Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice, Common Sense by Thomas Paine, and the memoir of Benjamin Tallmadge (the memoir is only 75 pages long so..)

WIPS

Presently unamed, editing in a month: What if Sibyl Vane was too haunt Dorian Gray? Heavily inspired by Wilde’s poetry, Emilie Autumn, steampunk, the allegory of ghosts as the inescapable past popularized by Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol. As well as the folklore of banshees, avenging angels & La Llorona. More here. Playlist. 

Pending: novella: les liaisons dangereuses x vampires. Playlist.

Pleasure to make your acquaintance!

[avelera]

Hello! I’m the anon that asked for your advice on where to start reading the vampire chronicles. I just wanted to let you know that I’m nearly finished with Tale of the Body Thief and I’m just having such a good time with them.

Unsurprisingly, given her legacy, but Anne is such a good writer and Lestat is truly the character of all time. But I was pondering why they’re so good - because they are sort of ridiculous and Things Just Sort of Happen. It’s almost (but not quite) like reading fanfic because Lestat will just randomly do the most bonkers thing imaginable. So it almost shouldn’t be so compelling but it really is. And I think why is that it’s all earnestly done. There is humour in there - I’ve laughed a lot - but it’s not done with that in mind. Lestat’s earnestness and therefore the book’s is what makes it feel so captivating I think. Anyway, just thought I’d share and thank you again!

I definitely agree, as does Rolin Jones I believe, that the books lack something of "forward momentum" or plot. Things do just sort of happen.

But I think that is an element of Anne's great strength at writing characters. Truly, I think, her mastery of writing fascinating people that you want to hang out with covers a lot of what would technically be considered writing flaws, like a lack of plot or causal chain. We like spending time with these characters so we'll just follow them wherever they want to go. After all, the biggest sin of fiction is being boring and Anne through Lestat is very good at not being boring.

(Quick aside, I absolutely love Body Thief because I think it's as close as we get to The Vampire Chronicles pivoting to What We Do in the Shadows, which is one natural conclusion of her worldbuilding and characters with their big personalities. Instead, she professionally pivoted more towards the religious than the ridiculous aspects of her world, which to me was a bit of a shame. I think the books really shine when she allowed a bit more humor in.)

But yes, I think Anne Rice also appeals to fanfic writers because much of her style is an elevated form of fanfic writing. It's incredibly earnest and sincere, it's completely in love with its own premise, it references wider "fandoms" like vampires throughout literature and history itself, and it was queer before queer was cool let alone mainstream.

Anyway! I have a lot of respect for Anne Rice as an author, she put a lot of work into her craft and I think in this case her similarity to fanfic is less some sort of pejorative saying she's "amateur" and more saying she shared many of the same sensibilities and priorities as later fanfic writers, which makes her very accessible. She is also a NYT Bestselling author for a reason, her books are fun!

I'm so glad you're enjoying them and I'm so glad you stopped by to let me know!